KHOBAR: Another Filipina housemaid has died from her injuries suffered after allegedly being continuously beaten by her woman employer and her children. Husna Janul Arasalun, a 23-year-old from Basilan, Mindanao, expired on Dec. 2 at King Fahd Hospital of the Al-Khobar University, where she battled for her life for 43 days. She was admitted on Oct. 20 in a Red Crescent ambulance. Her death was announced publicly Monday after her next of kin was informed. Another housemaid, Romelyn Eroy Iba?ez, died on Sept. 8 at the same hospital after also allegedly being brutally beaten by her employer. When Arasalun was admitted, she was comatose, had very low blood pressure, and was almost dead. Her upper front tooth was missing; upper lip smashed, she had a black eye and bruises all over her body, including a fresh wound on her left ear. “Doctors who examined her also discovered old wounds on her arms and several bruises on her body; she was very frail and skinny,” said embassy officials who visited Arasalun the same day she was brought in to the hospital. Arasalun underwent several medical tests and procedures, including the removal of her colon and dialysis, to save her life. Some of Arasalun's relatives, who are here in the Kingdom, met with Philippine Embassy officials. They informed embassy officials they “will seek justice until the perpetrators responsible for the death of Arasalun are punished”. Embassy officials informed Saudi Gazette that the Philippine government will explore all avenues until justice is served. “Our government will seek justice for Arasalun and Iba?ez; elevate their cases to the highest Saudi authorities; and will file charges against the sponsors and family members who caused the death of these two OFWs,” said an embassy official. OFWs are Overseas Foreign Workers. The Philippine Embassy in Riyadh will again hire a lawyer to assist the Philippine government in pursuing the case of Arasalun. A month after she was admitted, Arasalun was able to confide to visiting embassy officials the harrowing ordeal she suffered. She said she had to scavenge for food in the family trash can because her employers never provided her food; she was constantly beaten by her lady employer and her children, resulting in the extraction of her front tooth; and she was not given any salary since she was deployed to the Kingdom. Arasalun had been working for 17 months without salary. Her relatives are asking for the payment of $6,800 from her Saudi sponsor, which is about SR25,500. Arasalun was hired, processed, and deployed as a button hole maker by Mi Amore International Recruiting Services when she was only 22 years old, but was instead told to work as a housemaid. Her deployment as a domestic worker at the age of 22 violated the overseas employment regulations that household service workers be at least 23 years at the time of deployment. The recruitment agency has been suspended from doing business, according to embassy officials.
